The perfect world aspires for a diverse society in which people are equal and treated with respect regardless of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. 'We imagine a world free of physical and mental violence against queers and non queers, where no one is excluded nor discriminated' (Myers M. & Crockett J., 2007). Even though much progress has been made in recent years, a representative survey of over 1,200 interviews, conducted by The University of Manchester, shows LGBTs were more than twice as likely to be bullied and discriminated against than heterosexual employees in 6 different companies located in UK. (Einarsdottir, A. Hoel, H & Lewis, 2014). Companies need to acknowledge bias still exists in their working environment and have to start acting on that. This issue could eventually escalate and have a permanent negative impact on the performance of all employees and the company’s brand identity and corporate social responsibility. It is their duty to acknowledge this problem, establish behavioural standards and make sure they are respected. To determine the most effective industry segment to target, we have conducted a stakeholder analysis that revealed the media industry has a great deal of influence over the LGBT issue in a historic context, but also of the Empatisk Arbejdsmarked project. Considering the overall purpose of our campaign, convincing companies/organisations that the Empathetic Workplace program is an excellent way to invest in a strong branding opportunity that leads to less stigmatization of LGBT employees. We will choose to target the segment consisting of the media industry in Denmark, due to the following reasons: the media industry has the dual property of being both the 'voice' of the people and a big authority in consumers behaviour. Therefore, it has agency in raising awareness of the standards of other workplaces concerning LGBT issues. For example, if a big discrimination case in one organization goes viral based on an investigative article led by a media company, it will ultimately lead to decrease in the respective organisation sales. At the same time, media companies have to concern themselves with their own brand values as organisations. If they want to maintain the authority they have and be able to open debates on such issues, gaining the audience trust, the media companies have to be sure that their own 'house' is 'clean' and be fully transparent on it. Therefore, they are the perfect targeting opportunity for the Empatisk Arbejdsmarked project, not only because it makes complete sense for them to strengthen their brand in this way, but also because they can reach the general public and other companies, ultimately becoming an example to follow. As Chip and Dan Heath put it in the Made to Stick book 'A successful defense lawyer says, "If you argue ten points, even if each is a good point, when they get back to the jury room they won't remember any" '(Heath C. and Heath D., 2007). Consequently, the core of our campaign is stripped down to the two simple ideas of making employees aware of their bias and of LGBT education as a future necessity.
We will start by raising people's interest with a series of posters inviting media companies in Denmark to an LGBT conference. These posters will be placed strategically in places where they can reach most of the media employees like the cafeterias of the offices. However, the posters also aim at targeting the general public, therefore creating a general expectation of participation towards the companies. To be sure we will engage our audience and make them pay attention to our event, we will apply the principle of unexpectedness (Heath C. and Heath D., 2007). The media companies will be officially invited to an event by receiving a package resembling a pack of condoms. After opening it, the condom foil will carry the instructions of "tear & blow". Inside the foil, there will be a balloon on which the official invite will be printed and visible after inflated. At the event, we use the concept of immersion by creating an alternative reality game to tell our story to the target audience. In immersion, the consumer enters the world of the story through the idea of moving through a virtual environment which replicates key aspects of a historical or geographical environment. (Jenkins H., 2010). We set the scene of the game in an alternative post capitalist future world, where corporations are the main actors in a predominantly queer society. This society is regulated by radical laws ensuring issues such as no racism, discrimination or homophobia are followed. The law keeper in our virtual world is a secret queer police, which makes sure all corporations are educated in these issues and respect them accordingly. Here our participants will enter a dark room, where they will receive an audio instruction to complete a series of challenges based on revealing bias. The design of our game makes use of the playful experience framework, including captivation, challenge, competition, sensation, thrill, fantasy and completion by having each department of a media company representing a corporation in the virtual world and competing against each other, to finish the mission (Lucero, A. and Arrasvuori, J., 2010). Each time a participant fails a challenge, the secret queer police will kill them. The overall purpose of the game is to make the media employees aware of their bias and of LGBT education as a future necessity. We achieve this by creating an exaggerated alternative future based on current issues. By having players actively interact with our ideas, we also deploy the emotion and stories principles the Heath brothers argue for as being essential to 'get people to care about our ideas' and 'get people to act on our ideas' (Heath C. and Heath D., 2007). At the end of the game, the media employees will go through a presentation of the Empatisk Arbejdsmarked package, held by LGBT Denmark. Here we will make our ideas concrete and credible, as well as urge press companies to act and buy the package.
References Einarsdottir, A, Hoel, H & Lewis, D 2014, The ups and downs of LGBs workplace experiences: discrimination, bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay and bisexual employees in Britain. Manchester Business School, Manchester. Myers M. & Crockett J. (2007). Manifesto for Queer Universal Design. Journal, [online], 7 p. Available at: https://journal.fi/sqs/article/view/50853/15508 [Accessed 2007] HEATH, C., & HEATH, D. (2007). Made to stick: why some ideas survive and others die. New York, Random House. Lucero, A. and Arrasvuori, J., 2010. PLEX Cards: a source of inspiration when designing for playfulness. Proc. Fun and Games ’10, ACM Press, pp.28-37. Jenkins, H. (2010). Transmedia Education: the 7 Principles Revisited. [online] Available at: http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2010/06/transmedia_education_the_7_pri.html [Accessed 21 June 2010]